Or, welcome to my low-maintenance heck.

I'm sorry, but there really is absolutely no excuse for photos like this. It's an AFP photo, so the link should stay good forever, but just in case, it's also archived here.

Seriously: What "news" does this convey? How does this serve the average newsreader?

As Gateway Pundit has pointed out earlier, Essam al-Sudani is activelyinvolved with the Mahdi Army, but the picture above is well beyond all reasonable limits of news gathering, and has clearly moved into the realm of actively assisting a terrorist group.

If I were a news customer, I would demand that the AFP immediately cease all association with Mr. al-Sudani, and that they remove all of his terrorist propaganda from their archives.

There has been in recent months and years been much discussion about whether or not to use as a (photo) journalist embedded with a military unit to work.

That is the question arises: Are there also photographers "embedded" with the other warring parties? (For words like 'rebels',' freedom 'and' terrorists' but even aside to let).

Today I ask this question but again on the agenda, following photos AFP photographer Essam al-Sudani through his press office has published.

Those photos show that Essam al-Sudani zastane Sjiitische with fighters of the Mahdi militia in Basra, for example, he photographs at the time it places a roadside bomb. I still get an uneasy feeling in these and other photographs of the said AFP photographer.

Things like this make it disturbingly clear that the radical islamic element is far more infiltrated into our society than possible if it were a "small minority" of muslims.

#3 captainfish 29-Mar-2008

OH... MY... GAWD !!!!

If I were over there serving in Iraq, I think I might just have to take a nice little stroll and go find where this guy is bunking down for the night.

This goes beyond the freedom of the press. This moves into treason of freedom. This goes to aiding the enemy which is punishable in all countries. How can the wire services permit this? How can our own country?!?

I have been sick from day 2 when this nation has fought this war as a politically correct war. We need to CLAMP down on info coming out of the two war zones that give aid to the enemy. It is time to arrest more of these kind of terrorist-supporting photogs.

It is not enough to push our view and fight for our rights, but we must also push against those views from the enemy. Recall during WW1 and WW2 when our nation would push pro-military media and prevent all anti-military propaganda.

I fear that this will only get worse once we elect a new president. While the democrat side will actually make us retreat and run in disgrace giving up the innocent Iraqis to the evils of al-queda (the military wing of AP) and Iran, I fear McCain will run a far more "softer" war. He has already shown a proclivity to do away with prisons and holding camps and is not all that supportive of the Iraqi leaders.